State of Rājasthān, India — Towns & Travel Guide

What is State of Rājasthān known for?

Rajasthan is the land of the old Rajput kingdoms, and their walled cities still anchor the map. Jaipur, the capital, wears a coat of terracotta-pink plaster that gives it the name the Pink City. Jodhpur sits under the ramparts of Mehrangarh with its old quarter washed in indigo blue, while Udaipur gathers around the water of Lake Pichola.

Far to the west, the sandstone town of Jaisalmer rises straight out of the Thar Desert.

Where is State of Rājasthān?

Rajasthan fills the north-west corner of India, the largest of the country's states by area. Two great features define it. The Thar Desert, the Great Indian Desert, covers well over half the state and spreads across the western districts toward the border with Pakistan, whose provinces of Punjab and Sindh lie just beyond.

Cutting diagonally across the state is the Aravalli Range, one of the oldest mountain systems on earth, running more than 850 kilometres from the south-west up toward the north-east. That ridge is the great divide. About three-fifths of Rajasthan lies dry and sandy to its north-west, while the south and east, in its rain-shadow lee, are greener and better watered.

Guru Shikhar, the highest point, rises above the hill station of Mount Abu in the far south. The land tilts down from those hills toward the desert. Jaipur, the capital, sits in the eastern half where the Aravallis break into low ranges.

Water is the scarce thing here, and the whole shape of settlement follows it, clinging to the hills and the few rivers rather than the open sand.

What is State of Rājasthān like?

Rajasthan carries the memory of its warrior clans in almost everything it makes. The Rajput courts left forts, palaces, and step-wells, and they left a taste for colour that survives in the block-printed cloth, the mirror-work, and the lacquered bangles sold in the bazaars. Music and dance grew up around those courts.

Folk singers of the desert villages still perform the ballads that once entertained the maharajas, and the whirling ghoomar and kalbelia dances belong to the same living tradition. The common speech is Rajasthani, a cluster of related dialects spread across the state, though Hindi is understood everywhere. Faith runs through daily life.

The great pilgrimage of Pushkar draws crowds to its lake and its rare temple to Brahma, and the same fair fills the sands with thousands of camels and traders each year. Food leans on what the dry land allows. Lentils, millet, and dried vegetables carry the desert kitchen, and the fiery mutton laal maas cooked in Jodhpur or the dal-baati-churma eaten across the state show how much can be made from little.

Hospitality is close to a code here. Guests are treated as an honour, a habit born in a land where the next well was always far off.

What is the history of State of Rājasthān?

The name Rajasthan means the land of kings, and for centuries the region was a patchwork of Rajput princely states rather than one country. Mewar around Udaipur, Marwar around Jodhpur, and the state of Jaipur each guarded their own forts and fought their own wars, sometimes against the Mughal emperors and sometimes as their allies. The British later ruled the whole through the princes as the Rajputana Agency.

All of that ended at independence. Between 1949 and 1950 the two dozen princely states were merged into a single state of the Indian union, and Rajasthan took its present shape, with Jaipur as its capital.

What is the climate of State of Rājasthān?

Rajasthan runs hot and dry through most of the year. Summers from April to June are punishing, and the western sands around Jaisalmer can climb into the high forties on the worst days, which is why almost no one visits then. A brief south-west monsoon brings what little rain there is between July and September, heavier over the Aravalli hills than out on the open desert.

Then the good season arrives. Winter from October to February is cool and clear by day, though desert nights near Bikaner can drop close to freezing.

How do you get to State of Rājasthān?

Most travellers fly into Jaipur, whose international airport is the busiest doorway to the state and an easy start to the desert circuit. Many arrive overland instead, on the fast train from Delhi that reaches Jaipur in a few hours. Rail is the real workhorse here.

A dense network of lines threads the state together, linking Jaipur with Jodhpur, Udaipur, and the far desert town of Jaisalmer, and the overnight sleepers cover the long empty stretches while you sleep. Roads fill the gaps to the villages.